


Taking Care of Things

by orphan_account



Series: Taking Care Of Things [1]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Angie has anxiety, Bisexual Alexander Hamilton, Bisexual Eliza Schuyler, Bisexual Parents, Divorce, Gay Parents, Modern AU, Multi, Music Theory Analogies because i be like that, Shared Custody of Children, character with anxiety, french speaking characters, may add more tags later, phillip is the one who has to take care of all his siblings poor boy, spanish speaking characters, they had seven children wtf
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-09-13 01:04:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16882689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Learning to fend for yourself wasn’t easy, especially when everything you knew was taken away so suddenly, and replaced with a mere shadow of itself. Phillip Hamilton knew this well. It was the Perfect Family and the divorce papers, the fake smiles and the crying in the bathroom and being told you were no longer allowed to be a child at age fifteen—not allowed to be anyone’s child. An adult’s responsibility in a kid’s shoulders. His family was broken and fragmented. His siblings needed him. God, he was all they had left. Their parents were there but not there for them. An opening of eyes, a painful revelation that no one would ever protect him from the horrors anymore. That he was alone in this. No one to rely on but himself.





	Taking Care of Things

**Author's Note:**

> So this is something I’ve been thinking about for a long time… Before I start, I shall say that I don’t know much about the Hamilton children, that I don’t care about historical inaccuracy (even if it’s a Modern AU) and that the Spanish here is 100% courtesy of ME and my latino ass. 
> 
> Also Alex is puertorrican here why becase yolo and because I say so and because I have more respect for a small, forgotten, English (not Spanish!) speaking country like Saint Kitts and Nevis than for this hamilton dude. If you gonna write Nevisian alex don’t make him speak Spanish that’s just disrespectful to the language and history of smaller, less, cómo se decía, European countries. No one changes a country’s entire language because yolo. Grab another country altogether.
> 
> (My English isn’t perfect me patient please and correct me if I mess up)
> 
> (same with the french tho)
> 
> Some clarifications:  
> Phillip is 16  
> Angelica “Angie” is 14  
> Alexander Junior “AJ” is 12  
> James Alexander (just james tbh) is 10  
> John Church is 6  
> Ellie is 1  
> William is 1 (they twins)
> 
> Title name from the song Taking Care of Things by Cavetown (fits so good, I cant even).
> 
> Who wants Daddy Issues poorly explained with musical theory analogies?

**_“_** _Oh but your eyes are wider than mine_  
_And help me to sleep_  
_I just hope that age does not erase_  
_All that you see_  
_Don't let bitterness become you_  
_Your only hopes are all within you_

_Hold out against the night_

_[Guard your hope with your life](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH-wP2TDUBQ)”_

-Bear’s Den

Phillip Hamilton waited in the bus station for his sister and brother. Two buses had already stopped for him, and continued in confusion when Phillip didn’t make a move to get in.

He checked the time in his phone. 06:47 pm. Seventeen minutes late. He glanced around, looking for his siblings. It was unusual for them to be so late. AJ was especially punctual. During this last year, he had been the one to rush everyone to get ready to school, making sure that no one was late. He texted Angie about it, but he got no reply.

An angry, cold wind whistled by, bleeding through the grey fabric of his hoodie and seeping into his bones. It blew his hair on his face and he was forced to put it up in a ponytail. Of all days his siblings could spend seventeen extra minutes at their piano lessons, they had to choose the one in which his dumb ass had decided to bring along nothing more than a hoodie to protect him from the cold. He had nothing else in his backpack.

He texted Angie again. He was sure that if he texted AJ he would have gotten an immediate response, with their current state, a detailed explanation of the circumstances, a list of the supplies they needed to survive and probably their coordinates and a weather report. He needed to talk with his parents about getting AJ a phone.

He tapped his foot against the cold, wet cement. How was the rhythm of that song they were practicing? A 3/4 time signature, right? Un, deux, trois. Un, deux, trois. It was a waltz rhythm, it inspired movement and fluidity, or at least so did Angie say. Thee quarter notes per measure. Yeah, Angie and he had played many songs like that.

Why were they taking so long? It was the right day, right? He checked his phone. Yes, that Saturday was the beginning of a Dad week. Dad’s new apartment was uptown, way too far from Mom’s house to go back and pick a thicker jacket, which meant he was stuck with his old gray hoodie for a week, although he would probably end up giving it to Angie or AJ at some point.

Small droplets of rain were starting to fall and he silently thanked whoever had put a roof on the bus station.

Why were they taking so long?

His phone suddenly vibrated in his hand. It was Uncle John.

(Did it even make sense to call him Uncle anymore?)

He pressed the answer button.

“Yeah?”

“Phillip! Where are you?”

“Um…” he looked around. “Waiting for Angie and AJ at the bus station? You know, like always?” His brain finally clicked, and he added. “Don’t—Don’t’ tell me. You already picked them up from piano”

“I mean, yeah. Didn’t your dad tell you I was going to pick you up today?”

Phillip pinched the bridge of his nose. It wasn’t the first time.

“He’s been busy with work lately” he argued.

“I’ve been trying to get him to take a break b—hey! Give me my phone back”

“Apparently, John has never learned that more than three thousand people die every year for using the phone while driving”

Phillip could hear Angie’s accomplice laughter in the background and he couldn’t help but a small smile to break in his face.

“AJ, you can’t take people’s phones without their permission”

“Should I let him die, then?”

“Just—”  fuck. “Just, hang up and come pick me up. I’m freezing my ass out here”

He hung up before AJ could derail the conversation into something else and sighed in the cold air.

Finally noticing the noise, he looked up to the transparent plastic roof of the bus station to see the angry drops diving down on him. The rain was falling in sheets, as if someone had suddenly turned on the shower and let everything out from nowhere.

When John's car finally showed up, he wasted no time in getting on the backseat, knowing beforehand that Angie had probably taken the passenger’s seat before he even got the chance.

“I’m sorry. Did I keep you waiting?” John asked when he saw him.

“…nah” Phillip said. He glanced at Angie. “But, I mean, I guess _someone_ could have texted”

“Phone ran out of battery” she said. “Sorry”

“I told you to charge it during class” AJ said.

“I forgot my charger at home”

“I told you to bring a charger!” he looked at his older brother with pleading eyes. “Phillip, Please, tell me you have an extra charger”

Phillip looked at John.

“You don’t have any chargers?”

“Only for IPhone. Nothing for Samsung”

Fuck.

“I’ll just—I’ll get Dad to buy one” he smiled at AJ. “Don’t worry”

AJ looked at him with big eyes, and Phillip could almost see the gears in his brain, like a tiny, creaking and moaning industrial factory, working at full motor to unveil something in Phillip’s words that not even he noticed.

He was both amazed and scared of the power his little twelve-years-old brain was capable of.

The ride to their father’s house was quiet. Angie was silent, which was already worrying in itself, and AJ wouldn’t stop fidgeting with his sleeves. John tried to start conversation a few times, and Phillip, for the sake of keeping the spirits up, tried to follow him.

“So, how did that exam go?” John would ask.

“I got an A” Phillip would reply. “Spanish is easy”

He would wink at his siblings and AJ would force a chuckle.

“I mean” John would say with playful sarcasm. “I wonder why”

“ _Debo tener una habilidad natural_ ” Phillip would joke back, and AJ would force another laugh. He could tell he was really trying to. AJ was a natural actor and the best liar Phillip knew (or so he thought). Maybe it was in the blood, even if they looked nothing alike, but if there was something AJ could not do, was to lie to his big brother.

Angie checked her watch, looked for a small bottle in the pocked of her puffy, dark blue jacket, and swallowed a pill.

John parked the car in front of the building. Phillip couldn’t help but notice his father and John’s other car was nowhere to be seen.

“He’s at work” John explained.

He didn’t offer the kids help with moving their things inside, because he already knew the answer. It was just a backpack each, with only the essentials like toothbrushes, money, AJ’s laptop, phones, enough clothes to survive a week and, in an hypothetical perfect world, chargers for Samsung.

After the events of last year, their father had moved in with John to a department uptown. It had two bedrooms (one for their father and John, and the other was shared by the siblings), a small living room, one bathrooms and the smallest kitchen they had ever seen.

“I got some new movies to watch tonight” John said. “Unless you’re too tired”

Angie shrugged and said:

“I’ll see how I feel after dinner. I just want to lay down now”

John nodded and did not argue.

“You feeling alright?”

Phillip and Angie’s eyes met for a second, and he could tell she needed to tell him something.

“Yeah, yeah. Just tired, you know”

“Well, tell me if you need anything”

She forced a polite smile. John left for the kitchen, and once he was out of ears’ reach, she whispered:

“Phillip, _mes médicaments_ ”

Phillip understood immediately.

“What’s wrong?” he asked in perfect french.

“I’ve ran out of meds”

“Hey!” John called. “Could you not speak french? It’s not fair!”

_Yeah, John, you’re missing the fucking point. You’re not supposed to know what we’re saying._

 “AJ, why don’t you, uh, help John with the cooking or something?”

AJ seemed to catch the second meaning behind the words, or at least got a feeling of it, because he nodded and headed back to the kitchen.

“I’ll just—I’ll text dad, tell him to buy more on his way here. Yeah?”

She nodded and pressed her lips into a tight line.

He did text his father, but he got no response. He was probably driving, although just like John, he had the bad habit of using his phone at inconvenient moments like such. Angie wasn’t too bad at the moment, thanks to the effect of her last pill, but he didn’t want to leave her without meds for too long.

Turns out, John wasn’t cooking that night (not a surprise, really). He had ordered pizza, which Phillip was thankful for. They dropped their bags in the couch and Phillip set the table while Angie and AJ chatted in the kitchen.

Table for five. Two of his six siblings, his father, his father’s boyfriend, and finally Phillip himself. About half of his family, not counting his uncles Lafayette and Hercules or his grandparents. A bit less of half of his family—did Maria count as family? She was… nice, considering what had happened. Nicer than Phillip expected her to be, no doubt. And his mother definitely considered her family. But… It just didn’t sound right.

His father arrived a few minutes later, and Phillip wondered where AJ had gotten his punctuality from. Angie smiled widely upon seeing him, and launched herself to hug him.

“Dad!” she laughed. “I’ve missed you so much!”

Her father chuckled and hugged her back with the same amount of love.

“I’ve missed you too, sweetie”

“I mean, it’s only been two weeks” AJ argued. “And we still, like, texted”

“Oh, come here!” Dad smiled as he reached out to grab him. AJ’s scream sounded more like laughter as he went to hide behind John.

“John! The monster wants to eat me!”

“So Alex gets all the hugs and all I get is complaining” John joked. “I see where we are”

“You’re just jealous he loves us more!” Angie laughed, tightening her arms around her father.

John crossed his arms.

“Maybe so”

Dad finally let go of his daughter to greet his boyfriend with a sweet kiss on the lips. Phillip looked away.

Don’t get him wrong. He fully supported his father’s relationship with John. But after fifteen years old seeing his father kiss his mother in the same way, seeing Uncle John in her place didn’t feel quite right.

“Phillip!” He was suddenly wrapped in a bone-crushing hug. “My favorite oldest son! I’ve heard you got an A on your Spanish test!”

Phillip smiled and had to keep himself from laughing his ass off when he caught John chuckling behind his father at the irony of the situation. Oh, if only Dad knew.

“Yup! It’s wasn’t hard, really”

AJ, suddenly very serious, made a motion with his hand across his neck to indicate him that it was time to shut up. It was just what Phillip needed to break into laughter. And soon his dad was laughing, too, and his laugh was contagious and when he hugged him, he saw the other three members of the family laughing along.

His dad had this thing—maybe not with the rest of the world, but he had this special effect on his children. Their existence was nothing but happiness and delight to him. And when they made him happy, the only thing he wanted was to make them happy in return. And all tension was cut with a ray of light, just like that. The pizza man arrived two minutes later and they all sat at the table to eat and share.

“So the teacher was all ‘the numbers are magic! Look at this beautiful equation! It’s a piece of art!’” the whole table laughed at AJ’s imitation of his math teacher. She had taught Phillip four years earlier and he was both delighted and terrified to see she hadn’t changed a bit.

“Wait until you get to eighth grade” Angie warned. “How was the—Yeah, we were studying genetics, right? And he goes ‘If a nice muggle and an evil wizard have children… with the recessive genes being the muggle gene and the evil gene…’”

“Oh, I remember that teacher!” Phillip laughed. “He’s insane”

“He’s awesome”

“I wish I had teachers that cool when I was your age” Dad commented. “My biology teacher made us memorize all the parts of the cell”

“And you never memorized them” John said.

“I never memorized them!”

AJ laughed, and Phillip could tell this one was real.

“Biology is cool, though” Angie said.

“See?” John smirked.

Dad huffed.

“You’re a bad influence to my children, John”

They all laughed.

“Okay, okay” Alex said. “I have an announcement to make”

“Oh, God, please no”

“Shut up, John. Today I was asked for an interview for a small newspaper”

“Cool” Philip said. It’s not that he didn’t care. It wasn’t the first time the newspaper wanted something from their father.

“They asked me if they could do it with the whole family”

He froze. Those kinds of things never went well. They had nothing to do with their father’s career as a lawyer, so the only reason why they would want this kind of things was to get into their personal lives, and that was certainly not a good idea.

“I mean—” Phillip started.

“Are you sure, dad?” Angie asked.

Their father’s smile receded a bit.

“I was hoping to get rid of some rumors” he explained. “What was the last time we did something all of us together? In family?”

Phillip couldn’t help but notice John’s quietness. They both knew that by ‘Family’ Alex meant himself, Eliza, and their seven children. John and Maria weren’t included.

In the other hand, he did miss his other siblings, and he knew about whispers. He knew what they said about his father and about his family in school. This may be a good chance to fix some things.

Or to make them worse.

But Dad seemed very excited about the whole thing.

He exchanged a look with Angie, and he could tell she was thinking the same.

“When would this interview be?” she asked.

“Later this week”

“Can we think about it? Or do we have to give you an answer now?”

Dad smiled.

“Take all the time you need”

Once they were done with their food, Angie picked up everything from the table and AJ washed the dishes.

“John told me you waited at the bus station for almost an hour” Dad said to his oldest son. They were sitting in the couch, skimming through the pages of the DVD folders, filled with movies John had downloaded in not-so-legal ways. In John’s words, Netflix would never kill online piracy. Also, Netflix didn’t give him access all seasons of Game of Thrones for free.

“I thought Angie and AJ were going to meet me there, and we would take the bus here, like we always do”

“It was my fault. I’m sorry. I forgot to tell you John was free today to pick you up”

Phillip had reasons to be angry. And yet, he wasn’t. Not really. Everyone forgot from time to time. And he couldn’t stay mad at his dad, anyways.

He smiled. And just like that, it was all forgiven.

They opted to watch The Lion King. John and Dad wouldn’t shut up about how that movie was _clearly_ , _obviously_ , _blatant_ pro-monarchy, capitalist propaganda with racist and xenophobic undertones, and AJ would try to eat from the hidden bag of M&Ms he had brought along as silently as possible as not to share with anyone else (although not even he could catch Angie’s hand stealing from him when he wasn’t looking). He looked very tense.

“Come on—the hyenas were casted away for… being hyenas, I guess. And Scar gets them to join society and suddenly the economy collapses, as if there wasn’t enough money to cover for everyone’s needs, yet a monarchy is perfectly maintained by the plebs… because that’s supposed to make sense, I guess, and everything gets solved when the plebs goes back to being oppressed by the monarchy—not to mention they’re portrayed as a different species. A lesser race. Also, the bourgeoisie pays taxes to the Nobility with their lives?”

“Isn’t Scar supposed to be like, a Nazi, though?”

“He’s _portrayed_ that way, yes. That’s what the movie wants you to believe! That the only alternative is fascism and—!”

But Phillip’s brain was too tired to keep up with the conversation. It was movie night, not Economic History of the XVIII Century night, and soon his mind wandered to more important topics.

“Hey, AJ” he nudged at his feet. In french, we whispered: “Give me some”

“ _Non_. My M&Ms, my rules”

“Give me some or I’ll tell Dad”

AJ glanced at him, unsure.

“You wouldn’t”

“Dad!”

“Okay, okay, I’ll give you some!”

“He has M&Ms!”

AJ smacked him with a pillow.

“You traitor!”

Very offended, he got up from his place in the couch and walked away, throwing the M&M bag on Phillip’s lap. It was open, and all the M&Ms were spilled in the ground.

“You can have them now. Whatever. They were gross anyways”

AJ walked into his room with angry, heavy footsteps.

“Hey, I’m sorry!” Phillip called him with a grin, looking back. AJ gave him no response.

The movie had been paused. When he looked back at his father, there was a tinge of disappointment in his eyes.

“You’re now going to apologize to your brother”

Phillip rolled his eyes.

“He was overreacting”

“You upset him”

“They’re just M&Ms!”

“Let’s just—” Angie reached her hand out to the remote controller. “Let’s just finish the movie, let him calm down and then… Phillip can buy him a bag of M&Ms tomorrow, yeah?”

They reluctantly agreed and the movie started playing again. The discussion between Dad and John resumed, this time about whether Scar’s movement had been a revolution by the lowest of low of the plebs portrayed in a negative light, or if the hyenas were Scar’s oppressive system and his ruling had been a dictatorship.

Phillip could tell their mind was somewhere else.

All he could think about was AJ.

Dad and John hadn’t stopped talking by the time the movie was over. Angie left to the bathroom and Phillip picked up all the fallen M&Ms from the ground (in Mom’s house they would never have waited so long before doing so) and threw them to the trash before silently going back to his and his sibling’s room.

It was in the same state they had left it two weeks before: the same poetry book in the nightstand, Angie’s nail polish in the desk alongside a few music sheets with mere sketches of a harmony (a simple I – vi – IV – V chord progression in A Minor Key for piano, in a good ol’ 4/4 signature. The melody itself still had some work to do), Phillip’s brush, long forgotten in the shelf, and hidden inside a drawer, the old family portrait. There was little space to move, with the three beds, but they managed.

AJ was sitting in his own bed, reading something. He didn’t look up when Phillip walked in.

“I’m sorry” he said. “I’m sorry I snapped like that. It was stupid”

Phillip never knew where AJ had inherited his humility from. He felt the need to apologize, too.

“It’s okay” he said. “It was my fault. I shouldn’t have done that”

“I just…” he continued, practically ignoring his brother. “I don’t—I don’t know. I’m not okay”

Phillip pressed his lips into a thing line. He sat next to the little boy and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, pulling him close. AJ happily rested his head on his brother’s shoulder.

“I don’t know how to explain”

It was rare the occasion in which AJ was out of words. He had taken it from his father, probably.

“Whatever it is, it’s going to be okay”

AJ shook his head.

“It’s not”

At this point, Phillip could already tell AJ was lying. He knew perfectly well what the problem was. He just didn’t want to talk about it.

He didn’t want to push him.

“You know you can always talk to me, right? I won’t judge you or—or be mad or anything, you know?”

AJ didn’t fully believe him, and it broke Phillip’s heart.

“Yeah” he said.

Phillip gave him one last squeeze before getting up. Before he could take a full step away, AJ spoke again.

“Phillip, can I borrow your hoodie?”

Phillip blinked, but didn’t argue.

“Sure”

“I just…” he paused. “I want to crawl out of my skin”

The statement was just a bit concerning.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to explain if you don’t want to” he took off his hoodie and handed it to his little brother. It was a few sizes too big and it looked like it was swallowing him, but it seemed to make him more comfortable, and that was all that mattered.

He stumbled across Angie on the hallway. Literally. She tripped over his feet.

“Are you okay?”

She disappeared behind the door and didn’t give an answer.

When he came out of the bathroom after brushing his teeth, he was met by the sight of his father pressing his forehead against his own bedroom door, looking almost asleep.

“John, please, let me in”

“You have to ruin everything, don’t you? You can’t even enjoy a kid’s movie in peace!” John’s voice came muffled from the other side of the door.

“The message was biased!”

“Scar was a bad guy! The hyenas are basically cops! It was a dictatorship!”

“That’s what I mean by the message was biased! I never said Scar wasn’t the bad guy! It’s just that that’s not how revolutions work!”

“It wasn’t a revolution, it was a dictatorship!”

“Uhm, goodnight” Phillip interrupted shyly.

“Phillip!” Dad suddenly took a step away from the door and stood straight. “I didn’t see you”

“I know”

He yawned.

“I was going to sleep so, goodnight”

“Goodnight, son. I’m going to sleep as soon as John allows me to” he raised his voice so that John could hear him through the door.

“Apologize!”

“What did I even do wrong?”

“Goodnight, John!”

“Goodnight Pip!”

Phillip chuckled and waved at Dad one last time before going back into his room.

Angie and AJ were already lying on their respective beds. AJ, with his eyes already closed, trying to sleep, looking tiny in his brother’s hoodie and Angie with her phone in hand.

“John must be so worried” she whispered.

John. Fuck. Phillip had completely forgotten about him.

John. Little John. The fifth child. Named either after his father’s best friend (and now boyfriend), or after Aunt Angelica’s husband, John Church. He was never really sure. He was six years old by now. He was an anxious kid, scared of cars and of being alone.

Phillip pinched the bridge of his nose. Fuck.

“What time is it?”

“ _No tengo idea_. No battery, remember?”

He pressed his lips together in a thin line, pacing around the room, trying to come up with something. His eye caught the empty bottle for Angie’s meds in the nightstand.

Could he…? Fuck. Nothing could ever be easy, could it?

“Fuck it, I’m just…” he picked his backpack. “I’ll be back soon”

“Phillip, no. No way. It must be like, one in the morning”

“It’s only going to be twenty minutes. Dad won’t even know I’m gone”

Angie opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again. She rubbed her eyes and sighed.

“Please, be careful”

Phillip smiled.

“Of course” he poked AJ on the shoulder. “Hey, little dude, can I have my hoodie back?”

In his unconscious state, AJ whimpered and clenched his fists on the fabric.

He would have to be cold, then.

He looked through the keyhole to corroborate his father wasn’t in the hallway anymore. He glanced at Angie one more time before making his way out and tip-toeing downstairs.

The dry, cold wind hit him like a train once he was outside. Thank god it had stopped raining. With quick, quivering steps, he raced under the night and the flickering streetlights for two blocks until he reached the pharmacy. He knew that place like the back of his hand, and they sold everything you could imagine at the cash register.

He had the prescription for Angie’s anxiety meds. The place was almost empty, but he got a few looks from the only customers who were as crazy as him to go out as night. It hadn’t occurred to him until then that he may not have the money. He could pay with credit card, right? It was linked to his mother’s bank account. She probably wouldn’t be angry. But she would get angry at Dad for not buying the meds himself when she found out, and Phillip didn’t want that. It wasn’t Dad’s fault, really. He had promised Angie he would tell him and, well, it hadn’t worked. It was his fault for not reminding him, if anyone’s. He could probably get some cash the next day, to compensate the loss. ‘Only for emergencies’ Mom had said. This counted as an emergency, right? It would be as if Mom was the one who bought them and he would get back his own money soon.

The staff members glared at him when they gave him the meds in a bag, and the cashier wasn’t very different as she checked the price. She said he cipher out loud and Phillip swallowed. Was it that expensive last time? He didn’t remember. Maybe it sounded expensive now because he was paying with his own money.

“Just… give me a second”

Phillip took off his backpack and looked for his wallet. He counted the money. He had enough and just a bit more.

“Could you… uh…” he looked behind her. The register was practically a small kiosk on its own, with candies, toothbrushes, shoelaces, condoms, mints, playing cards and water were displayed to be sold. And yes, even some cheap phone chargers. “Are those chargers for Samsung?”

The cashier (an old woman with gray hair, thin complexion and pale skin) looked at him like he were stupid. Or maybe she was just as tired as him and it took her brain a second to register his words. She glanced back and replied.

“They’re chargers. I don’t know about any Samsung or Nokia or whatever you kids use these days”

“I’m buying one” fuck it. They did look like Samsung chargers. “And… do you happen to have M&Ms?”

Three dollars with sixty cents was all there was left in his wallet. He stuffed everything inside his backpack (he had forgotten to take out his stuff before so there was little space and it was so heavy it hurt his back a little) and walked back to his dad’s apartment. He crossed eyes with a stranger in the street and his heart started to pound hard and heavy in his chest. He looked down and quickened his pace. He didn’t realize he was shaking until he was back inside. Safe and warm.

John and Dad were asleep, or so Phillip assumed. Angie was not. She had stayed up waiting for him. She hugged him when she saw him.

“ _Tenía miedo_ ”

“I’m okay, see? And I brought you some presents”

He took the three items out of his backpack, handing her the charger and the pills and leaving the M&M bag on the nightstand he shared with AJ.

“Mom is gonna kill you when she sees the bill” Angie joked. Phillip smiled and didn’t say anything. Angie gave him another quick hug “Thank you”

“ _Pas de problème_ ”

Angie connected her phone and turned it on. It took her a second before she could call James’ phone.

Despite being younger, James had been allowed a phone while AJ hadn’t, as he was the oldest one of the “Baby Group”, as Phillip liked to call them, with ten years and a half. He tended to act older.

John always wanted to make it a video call. It made him feel safer when he was seeing them, he said. So Angie opened the WhatsApp and pressed the button. Phillip sat on her bed next to her and poked AJ.

“AJ, wake up. We’re calling the others”

AJ whimpered in his sleep.

“Let me sleep”

“I got you M&Ms”

He sat up suddenly, a bright smile on his face. He saw the bag next to his bed and jumped into his brother’s arms.

“ _¡Gracias, gracias, gracias, gracias!_ ”

“Shhh! Don’t led Dad hear you!” he scolded him, but he was smiling, too, and pulled him closer so he was sitting next to him, with an arm still around his shoulders.

“Hey, look!”

James’ face appeared in the screen. He was holding baby Ellie (or was it baby William? The twins looked identical) and he had the brightest smile on his face.

“Hi guys!” he greeted them. He took the baby’s arm and waved in gently. “Say hi, Ellie!”

Angie smiled.

“Hi, James! Hi, Ellie”

“Are you sure she can look at screens?” AJ asked. “Won’t it damage her eyes?”

James froze.

“I don’t know. Is that a risk? I’ll put her to sleep then. John! Come here!”

Angie cringed and turned down the volume.

“Don’t wake Mom up, James!” she said.

“Mom is not here. She’s on a date with Maria or something, and the babysitter is doing homework”

“Well, don’t bother _her_ , then”

“Angie!”

Little John suddenly showed up in the screen, grabbing the phone from James’ hands.

“Hi there, John!” Angie smiled.

“I miss you!”

“I miss you too!”

“Hey, don’t forget me!” Phillip joked. “I feel hurt”

Little John giggled.

“Of course I miss you too, Phillip!”

“I mean, last time we all saw each other was just…” AJ made the math in his head. “Yeah, we need to organize to meet up. All of us”

Little John frowned.

“Mommy and Daddy wouldn’t like that”

“They don’t have to be both there” Phillip reassured him. “Don’t worry”

“Oh!” he exclaimed suddenly. “We made drawings in school today! I’ll show you!”

Angie chuckled.

“Okay!”

Little John put his phone down and they were met with the sight of the ceiling while he looked for his drawing.

“Here!”

It was him on a horseback with laser guns, Phillip guessed.

“That’s very nice, Johnny!” Angie said.

“Thank you!” Little John said. He was smiling so wide. “The teacher said I’m going to be an artist!”

“You have talent” Phillip agreed.

“I don’t want to be an artist” Little John said.

AJ frowned.

“Is it because of the money? Because you can still make money as an artist”

“I’m going to be a soldier!” He yelled with excitement, his hands turned into finger guns.

“I’m sure your enemies will be terrified of you!”

“I’m not scary, but I will be some day!” he said. “So I can fight and the kids at school won’t bother me anymore”

Phillip and Angie exchanged a worried look. He hadn’t heard about that one.

“John, are your classmates being mean to you?”

“The teacher said to ignore them and they’ll stop” he said. “But they’re saying mean things about Mommy and Daddy”

Phillip swallowed.

“Like what?”

Little John shook his head.

“Mommy and Maria said I can’t say that word”

“Does it start with ‘F’?”

Little John was very silent for a moment. Then nodded.

“They also say daddy has to ‘go back to where he came from’” he said. “But I don’t get it! They only see him when he picks me up to take me home. We ARE going back to where he came from!”

“Just—” Angie looked at Phillip, desperately looking for something to say.

“Have you told your teacher, John?” Phillip asked.

He nodded.

“She says I should ignore them”

Of course.

“Look, I’ll... I’ll talk with Dad, see if he can do something”

Little John nodded, not fully convinced.

“I want to hit them”

Me too, buddy. Me too.

“Well—” 

“Don’t do anything to them, John. It will only make things worse” Angie interrupted him before he could take a wrong step.

“But they’re being mean!”

“If you hit them, they’re going to blame you. You don’t want that, do you?”

Little John looked down.

“No”

“John” James’ voice said before he showed up in the screen, still holding baby Ellie. Or was it baby William this time? “Mom said you had to go to bed early, remember?”

Little John frowned.

“But it’s Sunday tomorrow! I don’t wanna”

“It’s Sunday today” he said. “It’s two in the morning. You should have been sleeping four hours ago”

Two in the morning! Phillip hadn’t even noticed time passing so fast.

“James is right, John” he said. “I think it’s time we all go to sleep”

“But I’m not tired!”

And, to prove his point, he yawned.

“We can talk again tomorrow” Angie said. “How does that sound”

Little John smiled.

“Good”

Angie mirrored his smile.

Phillip looked back at the screen and his heart sank a bit when he saw how… perfect they looked without Angie and him. Out of the seven kids, they were the only ones who looked like their father. The rest had taken after their mother: her black hair, her pale skin, her kind and soft features.

Pfft. What a stupid thought. His brain was tired, that was all.

“ _Bonne nuit_ , guys!” James said.

“ _Bonne nuit!_ ”

And with that, they hung up.

**Author's Note:**

> (I’m sorry).
> 
> Tell me what you think, guys! (please comment I love comments comments are good). I hope the weird music analogies weren’t waaaay too weird. Please correct any mistakes I made with the English and french and I’ll edit this.
> 
> (I’m not a music expert. I know some things. Be patient please)


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